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Les Hutchison


FUNKspex
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It's outsourced to Provan Sports so no direct income but they still make money from it.

Ah I thought as much, the last caller gave me the fear. Don’t get me wrong as I love what Provan Sports have done, however, would we make any more money if we ditched Provan and did it ourselves?

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We need to maximise our income and avoid anything that doesn’t bring 100% profit back into the club. We can’t rely on cup runs (what are they?) or hoping that people will plow money into the Well Society. Unfortunately, things like, the match day programme, club merchandise should all be done in-house. No outsourcing, as that process will surely cost us more money in the long run.

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To me it is obvious the ws has defaulted on payments and have given no guarantee of future funds being there to avoid defaulting again so Hutchison has bailed out leaving the ws to it. We simply don't have a big enough support for this kind of venture. Hope a consortium of businessmen snap up his 76% share or we, really are in bother.

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To me it is obvious the ws has defaulted on payments and have given no guarantee of future funds being there to avoid defaulting again so Hutchison has bailed out leaving the ws to it. We simply don't have a big enough support for this kind of venture. Hope a consortium of businessmen snap up his 76% share or we, really are in bother.

 

The club are making the payments not the society.

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At the Society/Manager meeting, when pushed, Jim McMahon commented that in his professional opinion the Society would need around £1m of working capital to be viable. That was after taking control of the Club, having REPAID Les H and John B. It was envisaged that it would take 5 years to get to that stage.

 

On that basis we need a total approaching £3m (LH £1.5M, JB £0.35M, Capital £1m) to pay the debts and then run the Club. And that is only if the Club is not making any further losses, which seems unlikely as LH is quoted as saying he will provide additional support over the next couple of months. I just don't see how that is possible without some outlandish sum coming in very soon from player transfers. Even if LH and JB are wiling to wait years for repayment, where is the basic £1m which is required coming from? Despite several promises, we have not even been told what funds the Society currently hold.

 

I agree, some clarity as to how this whole thing is going to be funded is urgently required. Would be fantastic if LH just wrote of the monies owed to him, but I very much doubt that is going to happen.

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If he wrote off 1.5mil for £1. What's the issue.

He bought the club for £1 and has sold it for the same. I very much doubt he'll have written off any of the debt due to him and will still be owed c. £1.3m whilst having security over Fir Park. All the aces are in Hutchison's hands should he wish to seek repayment if the club defaults on the payment plan.

 

I also noticed the accounts lodged with Companies House last month for Motherwell FC stated that if we didn't have a cup run and/or sell players in January we would have cash flow problems come January/February and would require further investment. Obviously a few players made way in January to reduce the wage bill but there would still be a gap left plug and would be good if the Well Society could clarify if any further loans were given to the club on top of the £310k that had been already 'loaned' to the club.

Edited by WellTiliDie
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He bought the club for £1 and has sold it for the same. I very much doubt he'll have written off any of the debt due to him and will still be owed c. £1.3m whilst having security over Fir Park. All the aces are in Hutchison's hands should he wish to seek repayment if the club defaults on the payment plan.

 

I also noticed the accounts lodged with Companies House last month for Motherwell FC stated that if we didn't have a cup run and/or sell players in January we would have cash flow problems come January/February and would require further investment. Obviously a few players made way in January to reduce the wage bill but there would still be a gap left plug and would be good if the Well Society could clarify if any further loans were given to the club on top of the £310k that had been already 'loaned' to the club.

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As someone said (if the above true) therefore the Society statement says nothing.

Either he walked away from the investment or took up his option to sell it back and is still owed.

If they told us one or the other. That would be good.

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I'll wait until I hear the full story before jumping to any conclusions here.

 

From the outside it looks like Les has 'sold' the club earlier as planned back to the society for reasons unclear from the statement really. Loan payments have been deferred to him so the situation may not be that different from before other than the the stewardship of the club changes and he is still owed money.

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This backs up my theory that Les H wanted to help out but NEVER had any serious intentions of being a benefactor for ever more and a day.

 

Even a supposed Billionaire would get tired of dipping his hands in his pocket. I believe he believed the Well Society would work, but most on here, myself included do not believe we have the fan base to achieve it.

 

This is very worrying. If he has not written off the debt then God knows how we will repay it and keep the club running on a day to day basis.

 

Serious cut backs on the playing side are probably inevitable. We should always have been budgeting for 10th and knocked out of cups in 1st round. Yet we always budgeted for top 6 and going far in cup + player sales. Not sustainable.

 

A lot of people have put a lot of money towards Well Society. Being asked to do so repeatedly is not a wise business model.

 

Motherwell need a wealthy benefactor. Sadly he has decided to do one.

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